Observation/Reflection #5 - How Do We Stop This Thing?
Observe how and when your teacher closes his or her lessons and/or activities. How does he or she end each class period? Is there a set routine? If so, describe it. Pay special attention to when you teacher begins to end the class. Does he or she return to the purpose or main idea of the lesson? Does he or she "set up" the homework or the next day's activity? Is the teacher still teaching when the bell rings or are students already poised to leave? Is there some "dead time" at the end of the class period? If so, how much? How do students react to your teacher's closing strategies? Remember that these questions are a guide and that you don't have to answer each one. Be sure you reflect on your observations and describe how you will try to end your classes. What supports for these ideas might you include in your lesson plans?
Observation:
I had another eventful day at North Kingstown High School today. After observing Mr. Browne’s biology class, I went to Ms. Parvo’s class to learn she went home sick earlier in the day and no one showed up to cover her class. She had left an activity for the class to do, so I just took over and guided the students through the activity on graphing the high and low tidal heights for five coastal locations over the course of one month. With about five minutes left of the class, I pulled everyone back together and summed up the activity and reviewed the important parts of the graph that the students needed to include (labels, title, key, etc). I told them that there was no homework and they would most likely be finishing the activity with Ms. Parvo the following day. I finished collecting the graphs the students started as the bell rang for dismissal.
Prior to Ms. Parvo’s class, I observed Mr. Browne’s tenth grade biology class. Mr. Browne stopped teaching his lesson on meiosis/chromosome recombination today with about 5 minutes left in the class. He briefly told his class that they would be looking at the recombination of dragon alleles in a lab activity next class. The students then proceeded to pack up their stuff and hang out at the door until the bell rang. The homework for the night is usually written on the board, and the only set routine Mr. Browne seems to have at the end of each class period is to remind students of the homework written on the board. There was none assigned for tonight. In past classes that I have observed of Mr. Browne’s, he has either given students extra time at the end of the class to start their homework/hang-out, or students worked right up to the bell in the computer lab.
Reflection:
I was definitely caught off guard today having to take over Ms. Parvo’s class, but it was a good experience. While waiting for a teacher to show up, I looked at the activity the students were going to be doing. Once I realized no one was coming, I tried to settle the class down and got them started on the activity by first explaining it, but they were full of questions as to where Ms. Parvo was, asking if they were going to get another horrible sub, then getting excited that I was the one who was going to be teaching the period. Most of the class went along with it and got right to work, while others took Ms. Parvo’s absence as an excuse for not doing any work. I walked around the room and answered questions the students had and helping them figure out the assignment. It was only a fifty minutes period, but it seemed like fifteen minutes because it went by so quickly. That is definitely something to keep in mind while planning lessons! Since this week we were focusing on closing lessons, I tried to incorporate it into my ‘teaching on the fly’ experience. Bringing everyone back together and reminding them of the important parts a graph worked well, and many students went back to add the labels and titles they forgot. They were also excited that there was no homework. At the beginning of class and as reminders throughout the class, I told the students I would be collecting the work they get done to show Ms. Parvo how productive they were while she was gone. This tactic worked well for most students because they got a lot of the work done, but there were still a few students who could care less and needed me standing over them to get the axes drawn on the graph paper. All in all, today was a good experience and it gave me a little taste of how things might be when I take over next semester.
Mr. Browne split the ninety-minute class up today into two activities – a review packet on the differences between meiosis and mitosis, and then a discussion using diagrams about meiosis, crossing over, and how chromosomes can recombine to have tons of differences (why brothers and sisters are not identical even though they have the same parents). I liked how he had two different activities and diagrams on the board to explain crossing over. I do think, however, that at the end of the class, instead of stopping early and letting the students just hang out, Mr. Browne could have given more examples for students to practice, or relate the more detailed discussion back to the big picture. There was no homework assigned, so Mr. Browne didn’t have to address that. Lastly, I did like how he told the class what they were doing the next class, especially since it related directly to what they were just talking about.
Observation/Reflection #5 - How Do We Stop This Thing?
Observe how and when your teacher closes his or her lessons and/or activities. How does he or she end each class period? Is there a set routine? If so, describe it. Pay special attention to when you teacher begins to end the class. Does he or she return to the purpose or main idea of the lesson? Does he or she "set up" the homework or the next day's activity? Is the teacher still teaching when the bell rings or are students already poised to leave? Is there some "dead time" at the end of the class period? If so, how much? How do students react to your teacher's closing strategies? Remember that these questions are a guide and that you don't have to answer each one. Be sure you reflect on your observations and describe how you will try to end your classes. What supports for these ideas might you include in your lesson plans?Observation:
I had another eventful day at North Kingstown High School today. After observing Mr. Browne’s biology class, I went to Ms. Parvo’s class to learn she went home sick earlier in the day and no one showed up to cover her class. She had left an activity for the class to do, so I just took over and guided the students through the activity on graphing the high and low tidal heights for five coastal locations over the course of one month. With about five minutes left of the class, I pulled everyone back together and summed up the activity and reviewed the important parts of the graph that the students needed to include (labels, title, key, etc). I told them that there was no homework and they would most likely be finishing the activity with Ms. Parvo the following day. I finished collecting the graphs the students started as the bell rang for dismissal.
Prior to Ms. Parvo’s class, I observed Mr. Browne’s tenth grade biology class. Mr. Browne stopped teaching his lesson on meiosis/chromosome recombination today with about 5 minutes left in the class. He briefly told his class that they would be looking at the recombination of dragon alleles in a lab activity next class. The students then proceeded to pack up their stuff and hang out at the door until the bell rang. The homework for the night is usually written on the board, and the only set routine Mr. Browne seems to have at the end of each class period is to remind students of the homework written on the board. There was none assigned for tonight. In past classes that I have observed of Mr. Browne’s, he has either given students extra time at the end of the class to start their homework/hang-out, or students worked right up to the bell in the computer lab.
Reflection:
I was definitely caught off guard today having to take over Ms. Parvo’s class, but it was a good experience. While waiting for a teacher to show up, I looked at the activity the students were going to be doing. Once I realized no one was coming, I tried to settle the class down and got them started on the activity by first explaining it, but they were full of questions as to where Ms. Parvo was, asking if they were going to get another horrible sub, then getting excited that I was the one who was going to be teaching the period. Most of the class went along with it and got right to work, while others took Ms. Parvo’s absence as an excuse for not doing any work. I walked around the room and answered questions the students had and helping them figure out the assignment. It was only a fifty minutes period, but it seemed like fifteen minutes because it went by so quickly. That is definitely something to keep in mind while planning lessons! Since this week we were focusing on closing lessons, I tried to incorporate it into my ‘teaching on the fly’ experience. Bringing everyone back together and reminding them of the important parts a graph worked well, and many students went back to add the labels and titles they forgot. They were also excited that there was no homework. At the beginning of class and as reminders throughout the class, I told the students I would be collecting the work they get done to show Ms. Parvo how productive they were while she was gone. This tactic worked well for most students because they got a lot of the work done, but there were still a few students who could care less and needed me standing over them to get the axes drawn on the graph paper. All in all, today was a good experience and it gave me a little taste of how things might be when I take over next semester.
Mr. Browne split the ninety-minute class up today into two activities – a review packet on the differences between meiosis and mitosis, and then a discussion using diagrams about meiosis, crossing over, and how chromosomes can recombine to have tons of differences (why brothers and sisters are not identical even though they have the same parents). I liked how he had two different activities and diagrams on the board to explain crossing over. I do think, however, that at the end of the class, instead of stopping early and letting the students just hang out, Mr. Browne could have given more examples for students to practice, or relate the more detailed discussion back to the big picture. There was no homework assigned, so Mr. Browne didn’t have to address that. Lastly, I did like how he told the class what they were doing the next class, especially since it related directly to what they were just talking about.